UKRAINE NOT SIGNING LAND MINE BAN YET.

Ukraine is not prepared at this time to sign the convention that bans anti-personnel land mines, Kyiv’s delegate told the international conference just held in Ottawa, where many countries signed the convention. Ambassador Volodymyr Furkalo stated that Ukraine may sign the convention in the future, but can not now afford the high costs of liquidating its existing mine stockpiles within four years, as the convention requires. Ukraine stopped manufacturing and exporting land mines in 1995, and has begun this year gradually to destroy its Soviet-era stockpiles, Kyiv’s envoy announced. He appealed for Western technological and financial assistance to enable Ukraine to proceed with the scrapping program. (DINAU, December 8)

Judicial Proceedings Also Against Azerbaijani Plotters.